Oh Honey, No…a Bucky’s 5th Quarter Fashion Blog: Loyola University Chicago

With the roller coaster of a season we have had, Wisconsin’s original game against the University of Northern Iowa has been cancelled, due to COVID concerns, but luckily Wisconsin was able to adjust its schedule and invited Loyola to town.

Thankfully this time, the game was rescheduled prior to me starting my article and not while I was in the middle of writing it, like it was last week.

Checks Twitter to see if the game has been rescheduled again...

OK, we’re good.

As a reminder, we will be rating the opposing threads on a scale of oh honey, no, to YAASS QUEEN.

Oh honey, no: Obviously, this is the worst rating. If I must explain this to you, you’re probably wearing socks with sandals right now, or a brown belt with black pants, either way, oh honey, no.

Ewww: Nice try, but no.

Werk it: You brought it.

YAASS QUEEN: Best of the best. Your proverbial milkshake brings all the proverbial boys to the yard.

School: Loyola University Chicago

Mascot: Ramblers

Color Scheme: Maroon and Gold

Official Brand Sponsor: Nike

Home uniform:

The Ramblers’ home uniforms are white, with maroon letters and numbers outlined in gold.

‘Loyola,’ is inscribed across the chest of the uniform in a script font, which is a good look, but their numbers are block. I mean, they did such a great job with the script letters, why not continue it with the numbers as well?

There is a sick design that goes down the side of the uniforms and continues onto their shorts and gets larger as it moves down to the bottom of the shorts, where the school’s ‘L’ logo resides.

This is a great touch to the uniform, as it’s not just your usual piping that you find on many uniforms. The conference name is also prominently placed on their shorts...which seems odd. I feel like it should be down toward the bottom of the shorts.

The missed opportunity of the number font and the weird placement of The Missouri Valley Conference’s emblem, just ruin this uniform for me.

Uniform score:

Ewww

Away uniform:

Loyola’s road uniforms are very similar to their home uniforms.

Their road uniforms are maroon, with black letters and numbers, outlined in gold, with the same arrow design going down the side of the uniform and shorts, in gold.

One thing that could improve Loyola’s look is if they would put their nickname on the front of the uniform. I think ‘Ramblers,’ would look awesome with the script font, as well as numbers in a script font.

Away uniform score:

Ewww

Why Your Mascot Sucks

When discussing Loyola, it’s important to also mention the awesome Sister Jean, the team’s chaplain, who definitely does not suck.

Sister Jean gained popularity during Loyola’s Final Four run during the 2018 NCAA Tournament, for just being herself.

I mean, what’s not to love? She’s even got her name on her shoes! I wonder if she will be my grandma...

Looks like adoption rules for adult grandchildren...

Karen Callaway/Chicago Catholic

LU Wolf

LU is a nod to St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, whose family shield shows two wolves flanking each side of a kettle, which is a symbol for nobility and generosity...?

As you can see LU is a wolf, and kind of a doofy looking one at that, with quite the under bite. I feel as though the designer of this costume made a choice to only give LU bottom teeth, do I understand that choice? No, not in the least.

Karen Callaway/Chicago Catholic

LU, unlike Winnie The Pooh, wears a top and bottom, typically a basketball uniform, but has been known to be a bit more casual in shorts and a t-shirt. Now, LU wasn’t always the school’s mascot, but ‘Ramblers’ has been the school nickname since 1925.

Originally the school’s sports teams, like most other schools that lacked creativity back in the day, were known as the school colors. That is until the the school and it’s school newspaper teamed up to hold a contest to provide the school with a new nickname.

Following the contest, the name ‘Grandees’ was chosen, which referred to the Spanish roots of St. Ignatius, but sadly the name did not stick.

A year later, the football team picked up a new nickname, the Ramblers. The new name became the team’s nickname because of all of the rambling they did, as they did not have a home football field and had to travel, errr...I mean, ramble to every game.

A few years later, the school cut it’s football program, but stuck with the Ramblers nickname. It wasn’t until 1982, that maybe one of the best mascots ever, was introduced: Bo Rambler.

Bo was a hobo...which in my opinion perfectly embodied the Rambler, as homeless people have no home, so they ramble a lot...makes perfect sense. However, Bo wasn’t a big hit with the school and LU the wolf was introduced in 1990.

While Bo’s run as mascot was short, it seems like he lived it up quite a bit in his short tenure, according to Jim Collins, the school of Communication’s convergence studio manager. “Bo Rambler was a little more, for lack of a better word, irreverent,” said Collins. “He would do inappropriate gestures towards cheerleaders…It’s amazing how things change in the 20 or 30 years since then.”

Collins said although he enjoyed Bo Rambler as a student, he understands why Loyola parted ways with the mascot.

“Back then, you used to make fun of drunks,” Collins said. “That kind of stuff was fine. It was later on that you realized [the political incorrectness of Bo]…I think it’s probably a good thing…Do you really want your Ramblers to be known as hobos?”

I mean, I don’t know about you, but that certainly sounds like a good time to me...I vote bring that hobo back and if he playfully hits on Sister Jean during games, that would make it even better.